According to the March 2022 Northstar/Cvent Pulse Report, event planners are confident and moving forward with in-person meetings. It sounds a little like “business as usual,” except for one important issue: The lack of staffing at hotels and venues, and the impact that the hotel labor shortage can have on planner relationships.
According to a 2021 report from The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), nearly 500,000 hotel operations jobs will not return. A Joblist survey also found that a third of former hospitality workers said that reentering the industry wasn’t even on the table. So, as a result of the hotel labor shortage, some properties are struggling to meet increasingly compacted planner needs.
But the industry is known for its resilience and ability to adapt to overcome challenges. This challenge is no different. By using technology to improve operational efficiencies, sales productivity, and expand marketing in key sourcing areas, suppliers can help meet the needs of today's planner – and build new relationships for tomorrow.
The hotel labor shortage: By the numbers
According to the report, for which Northstar Meetings Group and Cvent surveyed over 450+ event professionals:
- Close to 20% say they had to delay, reschedule, move, or cancel an event because the hotel/venue wasn’t adequately staffed. That’s up from around 5% in January.
- Over 40% say their hotel/venue contacts are gone.
- Approximately 55% say that hotel/venue staffing is an issue; that’s up four points (51%) from the January report.
But it doesn't stop there. Per interviews with hoteliers at Cvent CONNECT, staffing issues are exacerbated by planner turnover. Experienced staff at venues are training new staff helping to advise new planners. One key solution? Automating manual processes. With all of the technological advancements during this era of digital transformation, there are countless tools available to help make it easier to accomplish the vital work of creating new planner relationships and building back lost connections.
How you can use Cvent to combat the hotel labor shortage
- Update your Cvent Supplier Network (CSN) profile with additional content about your hotel rooms (photos), meeting space (diagrams), and local attractions. By adopting a more robust content approach up front, you can help your sales team save time – and give newer planners more valuable information up front.
- Leverage CSN Advertising to promote your property and provide useful content within the actual search results.
- Show meeting room layouts on your CSN profile through Cvent Interactive Floor Plans. This will help planners save time and might also provide a virtual site visit option.
- Build a Cvent Microsite that promotes the unique features of your venue and location; link to and share content with your local DMO/CVB.
- Enhance the planner experience on your venue’s website by embedding Cvent Interactive Floor Plans to highlight your property’s space and map new layouts.
- Use Cvent Passkey to help planners manage room blocks more efficiently – and drive bleisure upsells.
- Cvent Event Diagramming can help you provide more valuable information in your RFP response and do so quickly. It can also improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your teams’ collaboration with planners and vendors.
- By using Cvent Instant Book for smaller meetings, you can focus more of your sales team on larger events.
- Use Cvent Business Intelligence to forecast surges in demand to adjust staffing, track cancellations, and leverage planner data to fill cancellations.
Fight the hotel labor shortage — and rebuild planner relationships — with technology
Download the full report to take a deep dive into all of the data surrounding the hotel labor shortage, and much, much more.
Up next, learn all about the 2022 wedding boom and how your venue can seize the moment.
